Let a "17edo primary tetrachord" mean a set of four pitches in 17edo that span a perfect fourth (seven degrees) and include one of each of the following:
the unison - 0 (degrees of 17edo) - solfege name 'do'.
a second - includes 1 (ra, a minor second), 2 (ru, a neutral second), and 3 (re, a major second).
a third - includes 4 (me, a minor third), 5 (mu, a neutral third), and 6 (mi, a major third).
the perfect fourth - 7 (fa).
correspondance:
degrees
cents
name
solfege
0
0
unison
do
1
71
minor second (a.k.a third-tone)
ra
2
141
neutral second (a.k.a. two-thirds-tone)
ru
3
212
major second (a.k.a. tone)
re
4
282
minor third (a.k.a. subminor third)
me
5
353
neutral third
mu
6
424
major third (a.k.a. supermajor third)
mi
7
494
perfect fourth
fa
tetrachord notation
Tetrachord notation will show three scalar steps (as degrees of 17edo) separated by hyphens.
For instance, tetrachord 3-3-1 consists of
0 (do), the unison;
3 (re), a major second, 3 degrees up from 0;
6 (mi), a major third, 3 degrees up from 3; and
7 (fa), the perfect fourth, 1 degree up from 6.
The numbers in a tetrachord name will always add to 7.
A more generalized tetrachord system would allow multiple seconds or multiple thirds: for instance, 1-1-5 or 5-1-1. Thus, a complete chart of 17edo tetrachords looks like this (with primary tetrachords in bold):
1-1-5
2-1-4
3-1-3
4-1-2
5-1-1
1-2-4
2-2-3
3-2-2
4-2-1
1-3-3
2-3-2
3-3-1
1-4-2
2-4-1
1-5-1
Thus, by allowing multiples seconds or multiple thirds, we add 6 new tetrachords to our 9 primary tetrachords, for a total of 15. Our new ones:
Let a "17edo primary tetrachord" mean a set of four pitches in 17edo that span a perfect fourth (seven degrees) and include one of each of the following:
correspondance:
tetrachord notation
Tetrachord notation will show three scalar steps (as degrees of 17edo) separated by hyphens.
For instance, tetrachord 3-3-1 consists of
0 (do), the unison;
3 (re), a major second, 3 degrees up from 0;
6 (mi), a major third, 3 degrees up from 3; and
7 (fa), the perfect fourth, 1 degree up from 6.
The numbers in a tetrachord name will always add to 7.
17edo primary tetrachords
We have 9 primary tetrachords in 17edo.
Another way of showing them:
17edo tetrachords complete
A more generalized tetrachord system would allow multiple seconds or multiple thirds: for instance, 1-1-5 or 5-1-1. Thus, a complete chart of 17edo tetrachords looks like this (with primary tetrachords in bold):See also: tetrachord, 22edo tetrachords, Tricesimoprimal Tetrachordal Tesseract.